Chatter eliminator for road maintenance machines



July 31, 1934. LE GRAND H; LULL ,4

CHATTER ELIMINATOR FOR ROAD MAINTENANCE MACHINES Filed May 23, 1931 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 July 3 934- LE GRAND H. LULL CHATTER ELIMINA'I'OR FOR ROAD MAINTENANCE MACHINES Filed May 25, 1931 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 gwua'ntoz 952040 420 f[. {M

Patented July 31, 1934 UNITED STATES PATENT orrlcs CHATTER ELIMINATOR FOR ROAD MAIN- TENANCE MACHINES 8 Claims.

In road maintenance machines, such as' scrapers, which are sometimes called patrols and which have a scraper blade adapted to scrape the surface of the road over which they travel, the vibration in the machine sets up a chattering which is submitted to the scraper blade and the result is a washboard-like road. This is a very undesirable'result and I have designed a chatter eliminator adapted to overcome these objections.

This chatter eliminator for road maintenance machines is adjustably mountedon the scraper blade and operates as a bracket to steady the blade in its scraping operation over the surface of the road.

A feature resides in an adjustable brace which is adapted to contact with the surface of the road and which steadies the scraper blade in its travel over the road surface so that chattering of the scraper blade is eliminated, as well as permitting an increased speed of operation in miles per hour in road maintenance machines so that a decrease in the cost of maintenance is accomplished with my chatter eliminator and the efilciency of the road. scraper is increased to a very marked degree.

The chatter eliminator may be mounted upon the scraper blade near the ends thereof, preferably one at each end, with a bracket which pivotally supports the brace of the chatter eliminator which extends toward the ground and which is adjustable. A shoe which is adapted to ride upon the ground is carried by the end of the brace, or a suitable truck with wheels may be carried on the end of the brace so that the wheels will travel over the road. This structure forms a brace extending from the blade of the scraper down onto the ground and I have found that it accomplishes the very desirable result of decreasing the repairs upon the patrol units, as wellas permitting the scraper blade to spread the material under the same without creatinga chatter. Further, with this chatter eliminator attachment on the scraper blade, the patrol unit may be operated to cut the ripple or washboard-like surface off of the road in a single operation. 7

Once a road becomes of a washboard-lilre nature or irregular with little ruts in the same, it is dificult for the patrol scraper unit to again build the road into a smooth uniformsurface for the reason that if the patrol unit passes over a washboard-like road the vibrations of the wheels dropping into the little recesses in the road are magnified by the time they reach "sense worse than before, because it helps to build up the irregular road surface. Heretom fore it has been difiicult for the blade of the scraper to be held steady enough and yet be adjustable so that it would not chatter in its operation. If the scraper blade. of the patrol unit chatters in traveling over the road, the 65 result is that the road will be uneven. With my chatter ellminators even though the patrol unit frame is of considerable size from end to end, the blade of the patrol unit can be carried steadied so as to pass evenly over the road to make in a faster and single operation a smoother surfaced road. Thus the wear and tear on the patrol unit and in fact on all of the road machinery becomes less and the maintenance of roads is decreased in cost by'the 5 use of my device which is of a simple and practical character for use with patrols and other scraper units in the maintenance of roads.

In the drawings: I

Figure 1 illustrates a road patrol unit with w my chatter 'eliminators in operative position.

Figure 2 illustrates a plan view of a road patrol unit.

Figure 3 illustrates an enlarged detail of one of my chatter eliminator units.

Figure 4 is a plan view of the chatter unit of Figure 3. Figure 5 illustrates a roller bottom for the chatter unit, only the lowerend of the unit being illustrated. w

The patrol or scraper unit A is formed with an angle iron frame 10 which forms the bridge of the unit A and which usually extends from the front wheels 11 to the rear wheels 12. This bridge portion 10 is set up so as to permit the scraper blade B of the unit to be adjustably carried beneath the same.

The scraper blade unit B is mounted upon a frame 12' which is hung from the bridge 10 so that it'can be raised and lowered either by the handle 13 or other suitable operating means which may extend to the tractor which pulls the patrol unit A. Neither the tractor nor the means for operating the same from the rear of the tractor are illustrated in the drawings. Usually the m5 scraper blade unit B is operated by the control means so that either end of the blade unit B may be raised or lowered so as to adjust the scraping angle of the same.

The patrol unit A is also provided with means 1 iii?) dil so that the blade unit B may be set at an angle so as to carry the dirt from one side to the other ofthe road or in the opposite direction.

- To overcome the chattering of the scraper blade unit B I provide a chatter eliminator unit C which is formed with a bracket 14. This bracket 14 may be mounted directly on the back of the scraper blade unit B so as to be held rigid- 132' secured thereto just above the reinforcing angle member 15 carried by the lower end of the unit B. Pivotally connected by the king bolt 16 extending through the outer end of the bracket 14 I provide a brace which is formed with the attaching end portion 1 adapted to fit between the ends 18 or the bracket is and through which the king pin 16 passes.

The brace includes a bottom link 19 winch is pivotally connected at so to the lower end oi the head member 17, while the other end or" the link 19 is secured to an singularly-shaped end member '21 which pivotally supports at 22 the road shoe 23. The end member 21 is pivotally connected at 24 with an adjusting linlr rod 25 which extends to 'pivotally connect at 26 with the upper end ot the head portion 17. These parts form the brace of the chatter unit C. The adjustable link rod 25 may be lengthened or shortened by operation of the handle 27 carried by the upper end of the rod 25. This lengthens or shortens the connecting link rod 25 so as to raise or lower the shoe 23. The shoe 23 may be substituted by a truck D as illustrated in Figure 5 which may be pro= vided with one or two supporting wheels 28. These wheels 28 take the place of the contacting portion of the shoe 23 of the chatter eliminator C.

The chatter eliminator C is adapted to be connected or secured to the ends of the blade unit B as illustrated, and by placing one of these units at each end of the blade B I provide a bracket or brace road contacting member which extends from the blade B to the ground or road and holds the scraping edge to of the'blade B steady as it passes over the road. With this chatter eiiininating unit C it is virtually impossible for the cutting edge 30 of the scraper blade B to vibrate and chatter as heretofore as the patrol unitpasses over the road. I have found that with these chat ter eliminators the patrol unit A may be passed comparatively fast over the road as compared to the operation heretofore so that a greater naileage may be covered by a single patrol unit and thus the cost oi maintaining the road is materially reduced. The chatter eliminator G does not only permit the blade B to operate more eficiently in smoothly grading the road surface but it will permit a patrol unit such as A to travel over the road surface and in a single operation provide a smooth level surface such as has been impossible to accomplish in the same operation heretofore.

The link 19 may be replaced by means oi an adjustable link 19' if desired as illustrated in Figure 5 of the drawings. Between the sides of the I link 19', a slidable member 32 which is connected pivotally at 20 to the lower end of the head member 17 is positioned. This member 32 is slidable with relation to the member 19' and is guided bymeans of a rod 33 secured to the member 32 which extends into an aperture 34 in the end member 21. A coilspring 35 is interposed between the member 32 and the end member 21 to provide spring tension between these parts. Thus, the truck D is held downwardly against the surface of the road by means of spring tension of the spring The shoe 23 in proper form is provided with side flanges 36 which prevent the spreading of the dirt forming the road from underneath the shoe. Accordingly, the shoe 23 is not allowed to push the. dirt from beneath the same to either side of the shoe and the shoe 23 is prevented from digging a groove in the road.

The chatter eliminator C will follow along in back of the blade B in the operation of the patrol unit A and the brace may swing from side to side with the road contactor as illustrated in dotted outline in Figure l. This permits the unit C to adjust itself automatically as the scraper blade B is adjusted so that no matter at which angle the blade 18 extends, the unit 0 will adjust itself accordingly to follow along in back of the blade B comparatively closely related to the cutting edge 13 to evenly spread the road material over the surface of the road.

The upkeep on patrol units and road maintenance equipment is less by the use oi my chatter eliminator, because of the case of operation of the same over the road. It will be noted that in the operation of a patrol unit such as A, if the rear wheels 12 drop into a recess in the road, a jar or vibration is directed to the bridge is which in turn is carried onxthrough to the cutting or scraping edge 30 or the blade B. By the time the vibration has reached the outer end of the blade B it has been magnified or increased to such an extent that it has been found that the scraper blade B otthe unit like A, instead of smoothing the road out, will help to chop it up into ruts like that which is termed a washboard road. Then, when the road is oi a washboard=like nature the ordinary patrol unit over the same without my chatter eliminator only helps to increase the detrimental formation of the road. i have thoroughly used this chatter eliminator in maintaining roads and have found it to accomplish very desirable results which I believe havebeen needed for some time;

The structure is simple, and with these units the patrol unit A may be operated very swiftly over the road.

In accordance with the patent statutes I have described the principles oi operation of my chatter eliminator and while I have endeavored to set forth the best embodiment thereof, the illustrations are only suggestive to those who are skilled in the art and the invention is defined within the scope oi the following claims.

I claim:

1. In combination, a road scraper unit, a scraper blade mounted between the ends of said unit, a chatter eliminator secured to said blade including, a road contacting shoe, pivotal connecting means on said blade, a link pivotally conill) lib

necting said shoe and said connecting means, and I means for pivotally adjusting the link to pivot Mil including, a bracket member adapted be secured to the scraper blade, 9. king pin connecting link,

adjustable linkage extending from said king pinand adjustable linkage connecting said king pin connector and said connector carried by saidroad contacting member, whereby said road contacting. 15 member may be adjustably positioned in relation to the cutting edge 01' the scraper blade to bear upon the ground adjacent the cutting edge of the scraper blade to provide an adjustable and selfalini'ng brace for the scraper blade to prevent chatteringoi the same.

5. A road scraper chatter eliminator including, a bracket member adapted to be supported on a scraper blade, a pivotal link secured thereto, a

tion to said bracket.

shoe carried by said link, andmeans for pit oting said link to force said shoe into engagement with the surface of the ground.

6..A road scraperblade chatter eliminator including, a bracket adapted to be supported by the scraper blade, a head portion pivotaliy secured to said bracket, a link pivotally secured to said head portion, a shoe secured to said link. and means for pivoting said link and shoe into engagement with the surface of the ground.

7. A chatter eliminator for road scrapers in cluding, a bracket on the scraper blade, a road contacting shoe, a link pivotally connecting said shoe and said bracket, and an adjustable link rod between said bracket and said shoe to adjust the pivotal relation of said bracket and the link.

8. A chatter eliminator for road scrapers including, a bracket on the scraper blade, a road contacting shoe, a link pivotally connecting said shoe and said bracket, and means for holding said shoe and link in any adjusted position with rela- LE GRAND LULL. 

